Totals for The Nine & The Seven -- the previous year too (Part 8 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

As before, let's get right to it.

Here are the judicial output totals for the 2 courts:
total majority/deciding opinions for each court,
total separate/non-deciding opinions (concurring + dissenting opinions),
and total opinions of any type (majority/deciding + separate concurring + dissenting).

CHART 1
(click to enlarge)

As shown in chart 1, the 7 Judges of the New York Court of Appeals collectively authored more than half-again the number of majority/deciding opinions as did the 9 Justices of the Supreme Court. (118 vs 74--that's 1.6 times as many, to be a bit more precise.)

And yet, the numbers for all opinions (majority/deciding + separate concurring + dissenting) are much closer. (185 vs 192.)
The reason those totals are so much closer? The Supreme Court Justices collectively wrote considerably more separate/non-deciding opinions (concurrences + dissents). (111 vs 74.)

Stated differently: most of the opinions authored by the 7 New York Judges decided cases before that court.
Most of what the 9 Supreme Court Justices wrote were separate statements in concurring and dissenting opinions.

BUT--you might wonder--was last year just an aberration? (Recall that the data thus far discussed, here and in the previous posts in this series, is for the last complete year: summer break 2012 to summer break 2013.)
Well, glad you asked!

What about the year before?
Here it is, the 2011-2012 year.

CHART 2

Hmm!
Chart 2, with the numbers for 2011-12, looks much the same as chart 1 did for 2012-13.

The Nine & The Seven--Graphic Recap (Part 7 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

Without delay: the total opinions authored be each Justice and Judge, as well as the average for each court.

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

As Chart 1 shows, the average for New York Court of Appeals Judges is higher than the figure for every Supreme Court Justice, including the most prolific.
Also notable, New York's Judge Smith was by far the most prolific of the members of both courts.
Additionally, 4 of the 7 Court of Appeals Judges authored more opinions than any of the 9 Supreme Court Justices.
(N.B., the Ciparick-Rivera seat [CC-JR*] was vacant for 1 1/2 months of cases; the Jones-Abdus-Salaam seat [TJ-AS**] participated in only 1 1/2 of the monthly sessions.)

Now for the majority opinions--the ones that actually decided a case. As we've seen in previous posts, the contrast between courts is even more striking here.

CHART 2

Every one of the Court of Appeals Judges (except for the 1 1/2 month Jones-Abdus-Salaam seat) authored double (or far more than double) the Supreme Court's average number of majority/deciding opinions.
Indeed, every New York Judge (again, with that 1 1/2 month seat exception) authored far more majority/deciding opinions than any of the Justices did.

The 2 Junior Justices & NY Judges (Part 6 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

There are 2 members of each court whose judicial output we have yet to survey. Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan of the Supreme Court. Jenny Rivera and Sheila Abdus-Salaam of the New York Court of Appeals. The most recently appointed Justices and Judges.

As mentioned in the last post, there's a wrinkle here. Neither Judge Rivera nor Judge Abdus-Salaam was on the New York court for the entire year. (Recall, we are reviewing summer break 2012 to summer break 2013). Rivera didn't join the court until February. Abdus-Salaam till May.

So for the purposes here, let's combine the records of each of those Judges with the records of their predecessors who sat on the court in the earlier part of the year. Rivera with that of Carmen Ciparick (who left because of mandatory age retirement at the end of 2012). Abdus-Salaam with that of Theodore Jones (who tragically passed away in November 2012).

But even those combinations do not constitute a full year. The Ciparick to Rivera seat was vacant for the Court of Appeals' January session and 1/2 of the February one. The Jones to Abdus-Salaam seat was vacant most of the year--neither Judge participated in decisions of appeals rendered from November through May.

Nevertheless, simply for the sake of completeness, we'll include those combinations in the graphs for this post. But we'll also include the averages for the Court of Appeals as a whole--and for symmetry, that for the Supreme Court as well--to have something meaningful with which to make comparisons.

With the foregoing in mind, let's get going.

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

First, remember that the figures for the 2 New York Judges represent less than full years. And yet, the total number of judicial opinions authored by the Ciparick-Rivera seat (24) was still greater than that for Justice Sotomayor (17) and virtually the same as that for Justice Kagan (25).
(The number of total opinions by the Jones-Abdus-Salaam seat represents only 1 and 1/2 months of cases and, consequently, is not really amenable to any meaningful comparisons.)

Regarding that total number of judicial opinions by Justice Kagan, it is very close to the Court of Appeals average (27). In fact, it is greater than the Supreme Court average (~21) which, in turn, is lower than that of the New York court.

Let's look inside these figures. First, majority opinions.

CHART 2

The 7 Supreme Court Justices we've looked at in previous posts each authored 8 or 9 majority opinions. Sotomayor and Kagan were no different. That's half the Court of Appeals average (~17). In fact, it is half the number of majority opinions authored by the less-than-full-year Jones-Rivera seat (17).
(Again, the number for the Jones-Abdus-Salaam seat, representing only 1 and 1/2 months of cases, is not really amenable to any meaningful comparisons.)

Graphic Recap: Roberts to Alito - Lippman to Pigott (Part 5 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

Before going further, let's recap what we've seen so far. Some of this will be striking.

We'll do it in a few relatively uncluttered graphs that will help to make the comparative numbers stand out.

Thus far in this series, we've looked at the judicial output of 7 Justices and 5 New York Judges--all but the 2 most junior members of each court. And we've been looking at the past year--specifically summer break 2012 to summer break 2013. (We'll take up the remaining members of the 2 courts--the 2 most junior members of each--in the next post.)

Let's start the recapping with the figures for total judicial opinions. That is, the sum of majority + concurring + dissenting opinions authored by each of the Justices and Judges we've considered in the preceding posts. And we'll now include the average number for each court.

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

Chart 1 reflects what we've been seeing in this series. In general, the judicial output of the New York Judges exceeds that of the Supreme Court Justices. Significantly so. (And as we'll see, the contrast in the next few charts is even sharper.)

Of the 5 New York Judges, 4 of them (Lippman, Graffeo, Smith, and Pigott) authored more judicial opinions than any of the 7 Justices. Even the remaining New York Judge (Read) wrote more than 3 of those Justices and the same number as 1 of them.

Stated otherwise, none of the 7 Justices authored as many judicial opinions as 4 of the 5 New York Judges. Only 3 of them wrote more than the other Judge.

Perhaps the best way to underscore the contrast between the 2 courts is to look at the averages. As reflected in Chart 1, the New York Judges on average authored twice again as many judicial opinions as did the Justices. That's an average of 32 judicial opinions for the year for the New York Judges; an average of 20 for the Justices.

But as sharp as that contrast is, it is sharper still when we look behind these numbers.

Specifically, when we consider majority opinions. That is, when we look at the the number of judicial opinions that actually decided the cases before the respective courts. The opinions that garnered at least a majority of the votes and represented the opinion for the court itself.

So again, how many did each Justice and Judge author, and what are the averages for the 2 courts? Let's look.

CHART 2

Could it be more clear? Indeed, as mentioned previously, it is striking. Every one of the 5 New York Judges authored many more majority opinions--i.e., again, deciding opinions-- than did any of the 7 Justices. Not even close.

Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer & Alito - Smith & Pigott (Part 4 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

For this post, we're focusing on the judicial output of the next most senior Justices and New York Judges. Specifically, the next 4 senior Justices and next 2 senior Judges. (Because the Supreme Court has 9 members compared to the Court of Appeals' 7, we're looking at 2 additional Supreme Court Justices in this post.)

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

As is clear from Chart 1, each of the 2 New York Court of Appeals Judges authored far more majority opinions--i.e., opinions written for their Court that decided the case--than did any of the Supreme Court Justices. This is the same kind of sharp contrast that we saw with the other Judges and Justices whose judicial outputs we compared in the previous posts in this series.

In those first 3 posts, we looked at last year's opinion output of the 3 most senior members of each court. That is, Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Kennedy of the nation's high court; Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Graffeo and Read of New York's. (See Part 3.)

Thus far, the pattern emerging is that the New York Judges collectively wrote significantly more judicial opinions than did the Justices. This is most dramatically true regarding majority opinions. It is also generally true regarding total opinions--i.e., the sum of majorities, separate concurrences, and dissents.

The only exception seen thus far is the total number of opinions authored by Scalia. He wrote more in toto than did New York's Judge Read. Scalia actually wrote only 1/2 as many majority opinions as Read--and even less than that compared to Lippman and Graffeo. But he wrote considerably more concurrences and dissents than did Read. That raised his total somewhat above hers. Other than that, the pattern was uniform.

In this post, we're looking at the judicial output of Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito--the next 4 most senior Justices. And from the New York court, Robert Smith and Eugene Pigott--the next 2 most senior Judges.

What about their total opinions?

CHART 2

Again, the number of total opinions represents the sum of majority + concurring + dissenting opinions. (And as we've specified previously in this series, we're looking at the immediately preceding year at the Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals, from summer break 2012 to summer break 2013.)

Roberts, Scalia & Kennedy - Lippman, Graffeo & Read (Part 3 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

In the last 2 posts, we compared the judicial opinion outputs of Chief Justice Roberts and New York's Chief Judge Lippman, and then of Justices Scalia & Kennedy and Judges Graffeo & Read. Now let's combine those in a few charts just to make it easy to see where we are thus far in this series.
[In the next post we'll get to some additional Justices and Judges.]

First, let's look at total opinions--i.e., the sum of majority + concurring + dissenting opinions authored by each Justice and Judge. And specifically, for this series, we're looking at the immediately preceding year at the Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals, from summer break 2012 to summer break 2013.

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

As is clear from Chart 1, and has been clear from the charts in the previous posts, the total judicial output of the New York Judges is significantly greater than that of the Supreme Court Justices. Justice Scalia's output is an exception to the general pattern. The total number of opinions he authored is considerably greater than that of his two colleagues included here, and greater than that of New York's Judge Read.

Let's look inside these figures. Let's start with the number of majority opinions within these totals.

CHART 2

Again, the output of the Court of Appeals Judges is much greater than that of the Justices. Indeed, each of the three New York Judges considered thus far authored at least twice as many majority opinions--i.e., controlling opinions for the Court as a whole--than did any of the three Justices. Judge Graffeo, for the starkest example, wrote nearly 3 times as many majority opinions as did Chief Justice Roberts or Justices Scalia or Kennedy.

Scalia & Kennedy - Graffeo & Read (Part 2 of Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output [with Charts!])

In the last post, we compared the judicial output of Chief Justice Roberts with that of New York's Chief Judge Lippman. We saw that Lippman authored nearly twice as many judicial opinions as Roberts did last year (Aug. 2012 thru July 2013). That included more than twice as many majority opinions, and more than twice as many dissents as well.

Let's now take a look at the judicial output of the next two most senior members of each court. On the U.S. Supreme Court, that would be Justices Antonin Scala and Anthony Kennedy. On the New York Court of Appeals, that would be Judges Victoria Graffeo and Susan Read.

Let's first look at the total opinions written by each of them last year.

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

The picture is a bit less straightforward than it was when we juxtaposed Roberts' and Lippman's records. The total number of judicial opinions by New York Judges Graffeo and Read, combined, is significantly higher than that of the Justices Scalia and Kennedy combined--48 as compared to 39.

But while New York's Judge Graffeo authored the most opinions of the four, Justice Scalia came next. He wrote more total opinions than did Judge Read, as well as more than his colleague Justice Kennedy. The latter wrote the fewest of all. He authored significantly fewer opinions than did either Scalia or Read, and only half as many as Graffeo.

Let's look inside these total opinion numbers. What about looking just at opinions written for the majority. [Actually, opinions written for the Court, including the unanimous ones.]

CHART 2

As the chart shows, when considering only those opinions that garnered the support of the majority of the Court--from a bare majority to unanimous--the picture is clearer. The two New York Court of Appeals Judges each authored many more majority opinions than either of the two Justices. Judge Graffeo wrote nearly three times as many majorities as did Scalia or Kennedy. Judge Read wrote twice as many as they did.

Supremes vs NY Court of Appeals: Judicial Output (Part 1: Roberts & Lippman [with Charts!])

(The new school year is now in full swing. [Happy to be back.] But the Saratoga meet came to an end last week. [Mild depression.]

Reviewing the meet for the Saratoga Highlights will be therapeutic [Coming later this year.] And, of course, there's always lots to study and write about courts and judges and public law that will keep me occupied and out of trouble--filling the time I'd otherwise be at the track.)

The first focus of the new academic year for New York Court Watcher will be the previous year at the Supreme Court and at New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals. And we'll start off with who's producing what. More specifically, for the first few posts, who's producing how much.

Let's begin at the center seat of the 2 high courts: Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman. Again, we're looking at last year--i.e., the year that began with last year's summer break and ended with this year's (August 2012 thru July 2013).

How many judicial opinions did Roberts and Lippman each write during that time? Take a look.

CHART 1

(click to enlarge)

Yes, New York's Chief Judge Lippman authored nearly twice as many total judicial opinions as did Chief Justice Roberts during the same period of time. (We'll get to graphic breakdowns of majority, dissenting, & concurring opinions below.)

And yes, I know there's the but, but, but, and the yet, yet, yet, and the what ifs, and the did you considers, etc. If anything, however, it seems that most considerations make the contrast even more--not less--significant.

Take just one for now: their administrative responsibilities. Both Roberts and Lippman are the not only the chief judges of the courts on which they sit, but they are also the chief executives, respectively, of the federal and New York judicial branches. And--dealing with what's significant--the New York judicial branch overseen by Lippman is far larger, has far more courts and judges and staff, and handles far more cases than the federal judiciary overseen by Roberts.

(We'll deal more fully with that and other specifics later in this series.)

Notwithstanding a much greater administrative workload, New York's Chief Judge still manages twice the judicial productivity.

Let's now confine ourselves to majority opinions--actually, opinions written for the court, majority or unanimous.

CHART 2

Here, the contrast is even greater. Lippman wrote more than twice as many ruling opinions for his court than Roberts did for his.